In Ottawa, Mark Carney, a figure long considered a potential leader for the Liberal Party of Canada despite never having been elected, is anticipated to emerge victorious in the party’s leadership contest scheduled for Sunday, based on the prevailing poll results.
Having formerly served as the governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, as well as holding a position as an executive at Goldman Sachs, Carney is poised to secure the victory to take over from Justin Trudeau as the 14th leader of the Liberal Party and the 24th Prime Minister of Canada, with the support of the party’s sizable membership of almost 400,000 individuals.
Recently, Carney took a strong stance against President Donald Trump, denouncing him as a “bully” in response to the imposition of American tariffs on Canada. In a statement, he declared, “Canada will not yield to a bully. We refuse to stand idly by while unjust U.S. tariffs harm our workers and their families. It is essential for us, as Canadians, to confront this challenge united as a cohesive team.”
Canada’s CBC reported Carney compared Trump to Harry Potter’s Voldemort in reaction to the president’s comments on making Canada the 51st state.
“When you think about what’s at stake in these ridiculous, insulting comments of the president, of what we could be, I view this as the sort of Voldemort of comments… Like I will not even repeat it, but you know what I’m talking about.”
Manley, who ran for the Canadian Liberal leadership in 2003, won by former prime minister Paul Martin, said Carney will need new faces in his Cabinet.
He also sees Carney – a Harvard and Oxford universities graduate with a doctorate in economics – as holding an advantage over Poilievre in the next election.
Born in Canada’s Northwest Territories, 59-year-old Carney was also a longtime Goldman Sachs executive, who additionally served as the United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance.
Canada’s Liberals vote on a new leader on Sunday. (iStock)
By contrast, 45-year-old Poilievre has “done nothing but politics for his adult life,” said Manley.
The opposition leader was first elected as a Conservative MP for an Ottawa riding in 2004 when he was 24.
But Manley said, “Poilievre is a very effective communicator,” and Carney has to “prove that he can relate to the ordinary man on the street.”
“Can he appeal to people who elect governments, many of whom don’t particularly read books – and may not even read newspapers?”
“Being a successful politician today requires a different skill set than it was even in my time,” he said.
